Manchester clubs to win Super Sundays big matches

Both Manchester clubs are worth backing to win their matches on a Super Sunday of English Premier League action, with City hosting Arsenal and United travelling to Liverpool.

The Citizens and the Gunners are level on eight points after four English Premier League rounds and having had three common opponents - Liverpool away, Southampton at home and Stoke away. And on a line through those three teams one could argue that Arsenal is travelling better than City, winning rather than drawing at Anfield and beating the recently promoted Saints a fair bit more emphatically.

However, the one statistic that is difficult to ignore is the English Premier League home record of Manchester City over the best part of two years. Since Everton won 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in December 2010, a match in which the Toffees scored two first-half goals very much against the run of play, the Citizens are unbeaten in 31 home league games, winning 29 of them, including the last five straight and 24 of the last 25. Home records do not get much better.

As strong as Arsenal`s last three results have been, beating Liverpool 2-0, Southampton 6-1 and Montpellier 2-1, there is a suspicion that the Gunners are weaker than they were last season having lost Robin Van Persie to Manchester United.

Bookmakers are quoting Manchester City at around 4-5 to beat Arsenal and, at those odds, the Citizens are impossible to overlook. Their home numbers are just too good to miss the opportunity to back them at pretty close to even money.

It promises to be an extremely emotional day at Anfield where Liverpool plays its first home match since the new Hillsborough verdict. And the tears may flow both before and after the final whistle with Manchester United in town.

The Red Devils have won four games in a row after losing 0-1 to Everton on their first visit to Merseyside this season and they will fancy their chances of capitalising on the poor form of the Reds, who needed the rub of the green to defeat Young Boys 5-3 away in the UEFA Europa League.

Both Liverpool and Manchester United look likely to give away sloppy goals at the moment but at least the Red Devils have goals in them. How the Reds wished that they had Van Persie up front to assist Luis Suarez in the goal hunt.

Manchester United is around 7-4 to win at Anfield for the first time since 2007 and those odds seem more than fair given the manner in which Liverpool is playing under its incoming coach, Brendan Rodgers. The heat is on already.

Offers of around 5-6 about Newcastle beating Norwich at the Sports Direct Arena are on the big side also. The Toon Army only get rolled on Tyneside by the English Premier League`s heavyweights - just Manchester City has won there in 2012 - and the Canaries are destined to be in the relegation scrap.

It remains to be seen if Chris Hughton can fill the void left by Paul Lambert at Carrow Road but the early signs are not good. Basically, Hughton and Lambert are like chalk and cheese and the Irishman does not have the personality of the hugely successful Scotsman, who now heads up Aston Villa.

Newcastle has won eight and drawn two of its last 11 English Premier League home matches. Back the Magpies to make it nine victories from its last 12 Sports Direct Arena games.

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21/09/2012     © Frixo 2026